popular culture - Low (as opposed to high) culture,
parts of which are known as kitsch
and camp. With the increasing
economic power of the middle- and lower-income populace since
the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century,
artists created various new diversions to answer the needs of
these groups. These have included pulp novels and comic books,
film, television, advertising,
"collectibles," and tract housing. These have taken
the place among the bourgeois
once taken among the aristocracy by literature, opera, theater,
academicpainting,
sculpture, and architecture.
But modernist artists rarely
cultivated the popular success of these new culturalforms.Modernist works were
little appreciated outside of a small elite.
Life magazine's 1950s articles on the abstract
expressionist Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-1956), and the
silkscreenedpaintings by Andy Warhol (American, 1928?-1987) of soup cans
and celebrities signaled unprecedented fusions
between high and low art and the transition to the postmodern
age.

Quotations:

"Popularity is the crown of laurel
which the world puts on bad art. Whatever is popular is wrong."
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Lecture,
June 30, 1883, to students of the Royal Academy, London (published
in Aristotle at Afternoon Tea: The Rare Oscar Wilde, 1991).

"The artist should never try to be popular. Rather the public should be more artistic."
Oscar Wilde.

"The fact is popular art dates. It
grows quaint. How many people feel strongly about Gilbert and
Sullivan today compared to those who felt strongly in 1890?"
Stephen Sondheim (1930-), contemporary American composer, lyricist.
International Herald Tribune (Paris, June 20, 1989).

"Popular culture is the new Babylon,
into which so much art and intellect now flow. It is our imperial
sex theater, supreme temple of the western eye. We live in the
age of idols. The pagan past, never dead, flames again in our
mystic hierarchies of stardom."
Camille Paglia (1947-), American author, critic, educator. Sexual
Personae, chapter 4 (1990).

pornography - Pictures,
textures, or other material
that is sexually explicit, typically equating sex with power and
violence. The human bodies depicted in pornographic imagery are
typically flawless and vulnerable, commodified
rather than celebrated. Significant issues in the consideration
of nudes in any context
include: their gender, the gender of those who produced them,
the gender of those who paid for their production, and the motivations
of each of these people, as well as how these depictions are viewed
in cultures other than those for which they were originally produced.
Also, the presentation or production of pornographic material.

porphyry - A hard igneous
rock, originally recognized as the Egyptian variety now known
as "Imperial" porphyry containing crystals of feldspar
in a purplish groundmass. It was prized in the sculpture
and architecture of the ancient Romans as well as by
later civilizations. Also
considered porphyry are rocks of other colors
including a green variety from Greece which dotted with green
bits of feldspar.

portico - In architecture,
a porch or walkway with a roof — either open or partly enclosed — supported by columns and
often with a pediment, usually
leading to the entrance of a building. It has been a standard
feature of classical and neoclassicalstyles.
Porticos can be one or more stories high, and may be as narrow
as a door or as wide as an entire building. Porticos an galleries are often confused, and some can
be described as being both. The plural form can be either porticoes
or porticos. Each can have a colonnade,
and each can be a long porch.

Example:

Andrea Palladio (Italian, 1508-1580), Villa Rotonda (Villa Capra), begun 1567,
general view of exterior, Vicenza, Italy. This building has an
identical portico on each of four sides.

When used as a descriptor of attitude, positive suggests
helpful or encouraging qualities.

Quote:

"A linguistics professor was lecturing
to his English class one day. 'In English,' he said, 'a double-negative
forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian,
a double-negative is still a negative. However, there is no language
wherein a double-positive can form a negative.'
A voice from the back of the room piped up, 'Yeah, right.'"
Anonymous.

post and lintel - In architecture,
the simplest and oldest way of constructing an opening. Two verticalstructural
members called posts were used to support a horizontal
member called a lintel or beam, creating a covered space.

An example of post and lintel:

Stonehenge, c. 2,500-1,500 BCE,
stone, height
162 inches, and located 330 feet above sea level on the chalk
downland of Salisbury Plain, about 80 miles west of London near
the town of Amesbury. Large stones
(megaliths) standing upright
(dolmen) with a horizontal
stone balanced upon them (post and lintel). Numerous such structures have survived from
Stone Age France and England. About
half of the original monument is missing, but enough remains
to provide an idea of what it was once like. It was built in
three phases. The first phase saw the digging of the "henge"
that encloses the main area in about 2800 BCE,
and the first arrangement of stones erected c. 2100 BCE.
Once on site, a "sarsen stone" was prepared to accommodate
stone lintels along its top surface. It was then dragged until
the end was over the opening of the hole. Great levers were inserted
under the stone and it was raised until gravity made it slide
into the hole. At this point, the stone stood on about a 30° angle
from the ground. Ropes were attached to the top and teams of
men pulled from the other side to raise it into the full upright
position. It was secured by filling the hole at its base with
small, round packing stones. At this point, the lintels were
lowered into place and secured vertically by mortice and tenon
joints and horizontally by tongue and groove joints. It was begun
by people of the late Neolithic period and completed by a Celtic
people called Beaker Folk for their use of pottery drinking vessels,
began to use metal implements and to live in a more communal
fashion than their ancestors. The popular story has been that
Stonehenge was built by the Druids, but they were Celts present
during the much later time of Roman occupation.

posterity - Future generations; or all of a person's decendants.
What motivates an artist (or a collector
or an educator)
and to work really hard and well at it is most likely to be: pleasing
oneself and the contemporaries
about whom one most cares. Right alongside this in importance:
leaving behind a legacy for posterity.

(pr. pə-STA-rə-tee)

Quote:

"if you plan for a year, plant a
seed. If for ten years, plant a tree. If for a hundred years,
teach the people. When you sow a seed once, you will reap a single
harvest. When you teach the people, you will reap a hundred harvests."
Kuan Chung (-645 BCE),
Chinese writer. Kuan-tzu (Book of Master Kuan), — Kuan tzu
chi p'ing, edited by Ling Juheng, 1970, volume 1, p. 12.
Title romanized.

"No individual has any right to come
into the world and go out of it without leaving behind him distinct
and legitimate reasons for having passed through it."
George Washington Carver (1864? - 1943), American scientist and
educator.

"Morality, generally speaking, doesn't have much to do with the art market. Posterity does."
Michael Kimmelman (contemporary), American art ciritic, writing about Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939), a French art dealer who became wealthy in the process of making avant-garde painters famous. "Merchant of Modernism," New York Times, September 15, 2006, p. B30. See avant-garde and modernism.

" 'Why should I do anything for posterity? What has posterity ever done for me?' "
Robert Mankoff (contemporary), American cartoonist. Caption for his drawing of a man in a suit talking to another at a cocktail party. The New Yorker, July 30, 2007.

posthumous, posthumously - Happening or continuing
after one's death. When applied to a work of art,
posthumous might indicate works that are printed or cast
after an artist's death, as with a posthumous edition.
It might refer to works completed by others that were left unfinished
at the artist's death,
or to changes in thinking (art
criticism or art historical
re-assessments, praising or otherwise, changes in the
market value, etc.) about
an artist's work after the artist's death. It might also refer
to a representation of a
person produced by an artist after that person's death. This word
is derived from the Latin word postumus, literally meaning
"after the burial." The adverbial form is "posthumously."

"It was well we should be contented
with posthumous fame, but impossible to be so with posthumous
bread and cheese."
Robert Southey (1774-1843), English poet, commenting on the rewards
of authorship.

"I know I shall not live very long
. . . . If I've painted three good pictures, then I shall leave
gladly with flowers in my hand and my hair."
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907; she died at the age of 31, seven
years after writing this), German Expressionist painter. Diary,
26 July 1900. See Expressionism.

Post-Minimalism - (See Minimalism.)
Although minimalist art of the 1960s had a stripped-down, prefabricated
look, striving to be free of content
(free of allegoricalqualities), art with minimalist
tendencies from the 1970s onward typically became more content-laden.
The term Post-Minimalism was coined by Robert Pincus-Witten in
Artforum, November, 1971, "Eva Hesse: Post-Minimalism
into Sublime." Pincus-Witten pointed out the more embellished
and pictorial approach Richard Serra took in his cast-lead pieces,
and Eva Hesse in her pliable hangings.

Phillip Ritter asked about the shades
of difference in the meanings of "postmodern", "postmodernist
theory" and "postmodernism".

"Postmodernist theory" and "postmodernism"
are nearly identical. The former can imply more the body of writing
along with the thought, while the latter is more simply the body
of thought, albeit largely encoded in texts. The term "postmodern
theory" is potentially more confusing. It could be read
as referring to any or all theory (collective theories) associated
with the era of postmodernism, although what most writers probably
mean is "postmodernist theory," and perhaps writers
can be allowed to expect that the second meaning (postmodernist
theory) will be read by readers, if/because this meaning is apparent
in the context of its use.

- MRD

About postmodernism:

A joke: "What do you get when you
cross a postmodernist with a used car salesman? Answer: You get
an offer you can't understand." Written by "vance"
to a listserve, in turn quoted by "MaloneyMK" on the
ArtsEdNet listserve, Jan. 27, 1998.

potboiler - A work produced quickly, not of high quality
or of great originality, with
profit the main objective. Cheap formulaic work. Derived from
the idea that certain works are created strictly to provide one's
livelihood — to keep a pot boiling on the stove.

potshard or potsherd - A fragment
of broken pottery discarded by an
earlier civilization, likely
to have settled into firmly stratified mounds over time and provide
archaeologicalchronologies.
Because potshards are more commonly known simply as shards,
works of art about them or made of them can be seen in the article
on shards.

potter's wheel - A revolving horizontal
disk, sometimes called a head, on which clay
is shaped manually into potteryvessels. The simplest form of wheel
is the kickwheel. To operate
it, the potter kicks or propells some form of disk, crank, or
treddle in order to keep the turntable spinning. Also commonly
used today are power-driven wheels whose speed can be regulated
by the potter as he or she works. The potter's wheel was probably
invented either by the Sumerians of the Tigris-Euphrates Basin
or by the Chinese around 5000 BCE,
perhaps even before the use of wheels for transportation. Potter's
wheels continue to be used today, though commercial ceramicmanufacture is dominated by
slip casting. Nevertheless, they are part of the basic equipment
of the artist-potter. Kits of kickwheel parts can be purchased
for as little as $200.

Poussinisme - The doctrine that form,
rather than color, was the most important
element in painting, as it is in
the works of Nicolas Poussin (French, 1593/94-1665). It highly
valued draftsmanship and linearstyle
of painting. Poussinisme was a movement in seventeenth century
France which arose in reaction to Rubénisme,
which favored the coloristic brilliance and painterly
style of Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640). The Poussinistes
were led by Charles Lebrun (French, 1619-1790), although Lebrun's
work shows him emulating Rubens's style along with Poussin's.
Rubens, Poussin, the Rubenistes, and the Poussinistes were all
active during the Baroqueperiod of art.

This painting has special significance
to those who are interested in the theories propounded in the
recent best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, and elsewhere,
concerning the (supposed) truth about the Holy Grail (or Sangre
Royal ) — a secret kept by the Knights Templar and a mysterious
society called the Priory of Zion, or Prieure de Sion.
The Priory is said to have been headed at various times by such
men as Jacques DeMolay, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Claude
Debussy, and Jean Cocteau. Poussin is said to have been one of
this society's members, and to have left a clue in this painting.
The mountains in the painting are said to represent a range seen
near the village of Arques, in the region of Languedoc. One of
the shepherds in it points to words carved into a tomb: "Et
in Arcadia Ego" . . . In Arcadia I am. The tomb is said
to have actually existed near Arques, but it is no longer there,
having been suddenly demolished in the late 1960's under mysterious
circumstances. The reason: supposedly people were too close to
learning the truth of the mystery of the Holy Grail . . . the
Sangre Royal. The secret that many powerful people do
not want you to know: descendants
of a child begat by Christ and Mary Magdalene either lived or
continue to live in France to this day.